D.I.Y. bed liner?

Well many years ago i bought a herculiner D.I.Y. kit and today i found it out in my trailer. So i figured what the hell lets try it out. Well this project is a HUGE PITA! What a messy sticky PITA! It looks nice so far. I went around with a little 90 degree pick and scrapped out all the edges and used a shop vac to suck it all up. Then i scrubbed the bed with dish soap and a series of brushes. Then i sanded the whole bed with a sanding pad and a 4-1\2" flap disc sander only on the really rusty parts and took it down to the bear metal. Then i washed the bed again and rinsed it out. towel dried it and let it sit for an hour until completely dry. then i hand wiped the whole bed down with a 1\3 gallon of acetone stripper. Then i used the paint brush to hit all the curved parts and seams where the roller would not hit. Then i rolled on 1 thick coat and am letting it dry all night. then tomorrow i am going to add the remaining half gallon of the liner and see how well it holds up.





before

 

I've heard those DIY kits are huge pain in the ass, but for what it's worth yours is looking great. Sounds like you're doing it right. For the time investment though, I feel like it might be approaching equal value to just have a professional shop like LINE-X do it. I dunno, I have a topper on mine so I haven't lined it, but I'd like to one of these days.

 

@preybird1 how long did it take to get the forst coat down?

 

When I was looking for my truck, I found one on CL owned by a master mechanic. Had brand new 3 inch lift, camburg stuff, bilsteins, etc. He'd just replaced the head gasket and valve cover gaskets as well as the water pump and timing belt. Had brand new ko2s on it IIRC.

And the thing that prevented me from buying it was a real shit-show of a job on the bed liner. Looked like he just poured it in and over the rails. Awful. The cab wasn't in great condition either. Typical mechanic, lol. Engine was in perfect condition but no regard for the body, interior, or bed. Sad, could have been an amazing truck.

 

It took me a long time because i prepped for 2 hours. The actual painting was like an hour. If i could do it over i would have used sand paper before rolling it on again. I think the green scrubbing pad doesn't do a good enough job but if it last 2-3 yrs its worth the $50 it costs.

 

been thinking of doing my bed in the near future, but it does seem like a PITA

 

Got my gallon on hurculiner on my desk, just waiting till I have all day

 

get some knee pads trust me. It Turned out fantastic!!

 

Meh, it's really not that bad. For what I paid for the kit ($100 ish), it was well worth the time I put into it, which wasn't that much. A few hours over a weekend.

Rented an RO sander and took off the clear coat and most of the paint in about an hour. I think I ended up with 2.5 coats until the coating ran out. I think it took a weekend to do the work, but that was including sandinng masking, dry times between coats, beer breaks, family time, etc...

It's been about 6 or 7 years, and it's showing it's age now, where it's worn down in spots. It's definitely due for a new coating, but I'm lazy, and I just put Kings on, so I'm busy playing with those instead...